Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu believes “we always saw huge talent” in Ollie Bearman after the Briton claimed the team’s joint-best Formula 1 result in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Bearman also took his best result in F1 to date after finishing Sunday’s race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in fourth, a result which matched Romain Grosjean’s performance at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix for the American team.
Bearman put in a thrilling drive during his first full season with Haas, which included going wheel-to-wheel with reigning champion Max Verstappen and holding title protagonist Oscar Piastri behind in the closing stages.
“We always saw huge talent, and every single time, we are learning and improving, and since Singapore, he has been putting weekends together,” said Komatsu on the young Briton’s efforts.
“Austin, there were a couple of things in the Sprint race, but other than that, he was mega. But here, what can I say? He hasn’t put a foot wrong. It’s just amazing.
“After the pit stops, we were fighting against [George] Russell and Piastri – a Mercedes and McLaren. What a privilege to fight those guys. And just to hold him, what a fantastic job.”
Bearman has been on a strong run of form lately, finishing in the points at the last three Grands Prix, with the result in Mexico moving him up to 13th and ahead of team mate Esteban Ocon in the Drivers’ Championship.
Ocon also enjoyed a strong weekend, finishing ninth, with the combined points total moving Haas up to eighth and ahead of Kick Sauber in the Constructors’ Championship, leaving them just 10 points behind Racing Bulls in P6 with four Grands Prix remaining.
“We have always been there this season, fighting and never had a big result,” added Komatsu.
“What a team effort. Ollie drove fantastic and gave us completely the right information, the strategy guys did an amazing job – race engineer, performance engineer, everyone gave the right information to the driver communicating, so it was just a huge team effort, and finally, we managed to get a big result. Then to get both drivers in the points, it’s just amazing.”
